The name originally given by the Romans, in the language of constitutional law, to those who belonged to the Latin league. At its dissolution, in B.C. 338, they did not receive the right of Roman citizenship, but entered into the condition of dependent socii (q.v.); they had a definite precedence over the other socii, possessed the commercium (q.v.), and the right of settlement in Rome, and their attainment of the right of citizenship was materially facilitated. They received this when they had once filled any annual public office in their community, or whe on settling in Rome, they left a son behind them in the colony to which they belonged. After the right of citizenship had been given to all the inhabitants of Italy (B.C. 89), this ius Latii, or Latin Right, became useless for Italy; it was even given by many of the emperors to communities in the provinces, and A.D. 212 all free inhabitants of the empire received the right of citizenship. After this time the only Latini remaining were those called the Latini Iuniani, slaves who had been informally set at liberty, and who were allowed this privilege from the time of Tiberius.

The technical Latin word for the right of citizenship. This was originally possessed, at Rome, by the patricians only. The plebeians were not admitted to share it at all until the time of Servius Tullius, and not to full civic rights until B.C. 337. In its fullest comprehension the civitas included: (1) the ius suffragii, or right of voting for magistrates; (2) the ius honorum, or right of being elected to amagistracy; (3) the ius provocationis or right of appeal to the people, and in later times to the emperor, against the sentences passed by magistrates affecting life or property; (4) the ius conubii, or right to contract a legal marriage; (5) the ius commercii, or right to bold property in the Roman community. The civitas was obtained either by birth from Roman parents, or by manumission (seeMANUMISSIO), or by presentation. The right of presentation belonged originally to the kings, afterwards to the popular assemblies, and particularly to the comitia tributa, and last of all to the emperors. The civitas could be lost by deminutio capitis (seeDEMINUTIO CAPITIS). The aerarii, so called, had an imperfect civitas, without the ius suffragii and ius honorum. Outside the circle of the civitas stood the slaves and the foreigners or peregrini (seePEREGRINI). The latter included: (1) strangers who stood in no international relations with Rome; (2) the allies, or socii , among whom the Latini held a privileged place (seeLATINI); (3) the dediticii, or those who belonged to nations conquered in war. Though the Roman citizenship was conferred upon all the free inhabitants of the empire in 212 A.D. by the emperor Caracalla, the grades of it were not all equalized, nor was it until the time of Justinian that civitas and libertas became convertible terms.

The name given among the Greeks to a speech delivered before a panegyris; that is, an assembly of the whole nation on the occasion of the celebration of a festival, such as Panathenaea and the four great national games. This oration had reference to the feast itself, or was intended to inspire the assembled multitude with emulation, by praising the great deeds of their ancestors, and also to urge them to unanimous co-operation against their common foes. The most famous compositions of this kind which have been preserved are the Panegyricus and Panathenaicus of Isocrates, [neither of which, however, was actually delivered in public.] In later times eulogies upon individuals were so named. This kind of composition was especially cultivated under the Roman Empire by Greeks and Romans. In Roman literature the most ancient example of this kind which remains is the eulogy of the emperor Trajan, delivered by the younger Pliny in the Senate, 100 A.D., thanking the emperor for conferring on him the consulate, a model which subsequent ages vainly endeavoured to imitate. It forms, together with eleven orations of Mamertinus, Eumenius, Nazarius, Pacatus Drepanius, and other unknown representatives of the Gallic school of rhetoric, from the end of the 3rd and the whole of the 4th centuries A.D., the extant collection of the Panegyrici Latini. Besides these, we possess similar orations by Symmachus, Ausonius, and Ennodius. There are also a considerable number of poetical panegyrics; e.g. one upon Messala, composed in the year 31 B.C., and wrongly attributed to Tibullus; one by an unknown author of the Noronian time upon Calpurnius Piso; and others by Claudian, Sidonius Apollinaris, Merobaudes, Corippus, Priscian, and Venantius Fortunatus (q.v.).

Roman. It was an old custom in Italy to send out colonies for the purpose of securing new conquests. The Romans, accordingly, having no standing army, used to plant bodies of their own citizens in conquered towns as a kind of garrison. These bodies would consist partly of Roman citizens, usually to the number of three hundred, partly of members of the Latin confederacy, in larger numbers. The third part of the conquered territory was handed over to the settlers. The colonioe civium Romanorum (colonies of Roman citizens) were specially intended to secure the two sea-coasts of Italy, and were hence called colonioe maritimoe. The colonioe Latinoe of which there was a far greater number, served the same purpose for the mainland. The duty of leading the colonists and founding the settlement was entrusted to a commission usually consisting of three members, and elected by the people. These men continued to stand in the relation of patrons (patroni ) to the colony after its foundation. The colonists entered the conquered city in military array, preceded by banners, and the foundation was celebrated with special solemnities. The colonioe were free from taxes, and had their own constitution, a copy of the Roman, electing from their own body their senate and other officers of state. To this constitution the original inhabitants had to submit. The colonioe civium Romanorum retained the Roman citizenship, and were free from military service, their position as out-posts being regarded as an equivalent. The members of the colonioe Latinoe served among the socii, and possessed the so-called ius Latinum (seeLATINI). This secured to them the right of acquiring property (commercium) and settlement in Rome, and, under certain conditions, the power of becoming Roman citizens; though in course of time these rights underwent many limitations. From the time of the Gracchi the colonies lost their military character. Colonization came to be regarded as a means of providing for the poorest class of the Roman populace. After the time of Sulla it was adopted as a way of granting land to veteran soldiers. The right of founding colonies was taken way from the people by Caesar, and passed into the hands of the emperors, who used it (mainly in the provinces) for the exclusive purpose of establishing military settlements, partly with the old idea of securing conquered territory. It was only in exceptional cases that the provincial colonies enjoyed the immunity from taxation which was granted to those in Italy.

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